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Your Top 10 Tips for Reducing Food Waste

We asked you to tell us your top tips for making sure your food doesn’t go to waste at home on our Facebook page and we were inundated with your ideas!

Here’s just a few of our favourites to put to the test…

Be smart when it comes to restocking your fridge. Make sure new food goes to the back of the fridge while the old food is brought to the front so you remember what needs used up first. Or if you have shelves, put the newest food on the highest shelves and the older food nearer the bottom so you can easily see what needs eaten.

Make friends with your freezer. Freeze all your leftovers in freezer bags or Dial datable food containers where you can easily record the date it was either put in the freezer or when you need to use it by.

Create a “broth bag” in the freezer. Every time you’ve got vegetable peelings, stems of herbs, carrot tops, or any similar odds and ends simply add to the bag. It will quickly fill up and once it does you’ll have lots of ingredients for a tasty broth.

Plan out your meals before you shop. Make a menu plan for the week ahead and then write out your food shopping list- if you stick to it you won’t be tempted by impulse buying or BOGOF offers which can often lead to excess food being binned.

You don’t need to do a big shop every week. Why not try challenging yourself to making a week’s worth of meals from the cupboard, freezer and fridge without buy new food? This uses up what you have already, saves money and changes up the routine a bit!

Don’t throw away stale bread! Use a cheese grater to make breadcrumbs then freeze. This is great for using in lots of recipes including stuffing, or coating for fish or meat.

Use your old milk in baking. Don’t throw out your sour milk, if you use to make cakes, pancakes or bread it won’t be noticeable.

Keep your fruit/salads/veg fresher for longer. Add some kitchen roll to the bottom inside the packet and it will soak up any that goes a bit slimey and will help it last longer.

Bananas are not the enemy. Because they are prone to going off quickly, add some cling film to the stalk of the bunch when you first get them and they should stay fresher longer. Or if you’re too late, make a delicious banana bread.

Make crisps from your potato peelings. Wash the potatoes, peel the skins and use the potato for another recipe. Pat the skins dry with kitchen paper, spray with low cal cooking spray and salt & pepper, plus any other flavouring you like, and cook on a baking tray until crispy, voila!